Rocks for the man-made reef forming the foundation of a giant kelp forest off San Clemente came from this quarry on Catalina Island.

Cecil House, left, senior vice president of operations support at Southern California Edison, and Wheeler North, son of the late Wheeler J. North, unveil a plaque to be placed on the San Clemente Pier to commemorate a 175-acre artificial reef off the coast of San Clemente. The reef, built by SCE, will be called the Wheeler North Reef.

A photo shows the gathering of some of the 120,000 tons of rock used in building a 175-acre kelp reef off the coast of San Clemente. The reef was built by Southern California Edison.

Photo from the 22-acre test kelp forest built by Southern California Edison off the San Clemente coast. The company dedicated the completion of the full 175-acre kelp forest on Monday.

Photo from the 22-acre test kelp forest built by Southern California Edison off the San Clemente coast. It was so successful that the company laid the foundation for a 175-acre kelp forest in the same area.

A crane on a barge places rocks on the ocean floor in July for a 175-acre kelp reef off San Clemente being built by Southern California Edison.

A tug boat prepares to move a barge into place in July to lay some of the 120,000 tons of rock on the ocean floor for a 175-acre kelp reef off San Clemente.

Pat Tennant, marine biologist with Southern California Edison, holds a string of giant kelp from the 22-acre test field off the San Clemente coast. The test reef led to a 175-acre kelp reef in the same area that was dedicated Monday.

Kelp from the 22-acre test field off the San Clemente coast is visible at the surface in about 50 feet of water in this photo taken in July.

A crowd gathers at the San Clemente Pier on Monday as Southern California Edison dedicates a 175-acre artificial kelp reef off the coast.

Rocks are removed last summer from a quarry on Catalina Island to be used for the man-made reef off the coast of San Clemente.

Rocks are removed last summer from a quarry on Catalina Island to be used for the man-made reef off the coast of San Clemente.

Rocks are removed last summer from a quarry on Catalina Island to be used for the man-made reef off the coast of San Clemente.

Rocks are dumped off a barge into the ocean off San Clemente last summer to form the foundation for an intended 175-acre kelp forest.

Rocks are dumped off a barge into the ocean off San Clemente last summer to form the foundation for an intended 175-acre kelp forest.

Rocks are dumped off a barge into the ocean off San Clemente last summer to form the foundation for an intended 175-acre kelp forest.

Visitors look at photos of the construction of a giant kelp reef during a dedication ceremony for the 175-acre reef off the coast of San Clemente.

Soon, the waters off San Clemente could be a favorite gathering spot for fishermen and divers.

Southern California Edison today celebrated the completion of what is said to be the biggest environmental project of its kind in the United States – a man-made reef designed to grow into a self-sustaining 175-acre kelp forest.

During the summer, Edison used GPS technology to place 120,000 tons of rock at precise locations on the ocean floor off San Clemente. It’s an expansion of a 22½-acre experimental reef that Edison built in 1999 – a test reef that flourished.

Baby kelp is starting to attach to the new rocks, Edison’s reef team said, and within two years a canopy of giant kelp could hit the surface, creating an underwater habitat for more than 50 species of marine life. The goal is to help produce 50 tons of fish a year in an area 2 miles long by a mile wide, between San Clemente Pier and San Mateo Point to the south.

Edison unveiled a plaque to go on the pier, naming the reef in memory of a Caltech professor who pioneered the study of kelp and what makes for a healthy reef.

“The Wheeler North Kelp Reef will not only fill the coastal waters for fishermen … these waters will become a museum of nature for recreational divers,” Edison’s Cecil House said. “(It) could become the blueprint for successful restoration of rich kelp habitat that once lined the Southern California coast.”

Edison has invested $46 million in the reef since the early 1980s, when two new reactors went online at Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, three miles south of San Clemente. The reef is mitigation – worked out by Edison and the California Coastal Commission – for concerns that sea water taken in by the plant to cool the reactors had a negative effect on kelp off San Onofre when discharged back to sea slightly warmer and cloudier than the surrounding waters.

Peter Douglas from the Coastal Commission called Edison’s reef a model for other mitigation projects.

House said: “This isn’t just a regulatory box that we are checking today and we’re going to walk away. We have pledged 40 years of monitoring and management.”

Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.

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